Islam

The Mohammedan Negro has felt nothing of the withering power of caste. There is nothing in his colour or race to debar him from the highest privileges, social or political, to which any other Muslim can attain."
Edward W. Blyden, Liberian writer and thinker.

According to Arab oral tradition, Islam first came to Africa with Muslim refugees fleeing persecution in the Arab peninsula. This was followed by a military invasion, some seven years after the death of the prophet Mohammed in 639, under the command of the Muslim Arab General, Amr ibn al-Asi. It quickly spread West from Alexandria in North Africa (the Maghreb), reducing the Christians to pockets in Egypt, Nubia and Ethiopia.

Islam came to root along the East African coast some time in the 8th century, as part of a continuing dialogue between the people on the East coast and traders from the Persian Gulf and Oman. Like early Christianity, Islam was monotheistic, that is, Muslims worship only one God.

Islam was a modernising influence, imposing a consistent order among different societies, strengthening powers of government and breaking down ethnic loyalties.

Unlike Christianity, Islam tolerated traditional values, allowing a man to have more than one wife. For many, this made conversion to Islam easier and less upsetting than conversion to Christianity.

In the early centuries of its existence, Islam in Africa had a dynamic and turbulent history, with reforming movements and dynasties clashing and succeeding each other. Gaining power depended on securing trade routes into gold-producing areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. Islamic rulers expanded north as well as south. In the last quarter of the 11th century, Islam dominated the Mediterranean world.

In the 14th century the Black Death came from Europe and seriously undermined the social and economic life of North Africa, or the Maghreb, as it is known. However Islam remained the dominant religion.

From the 16th to the 19th century, much of the Maghreb was under Ottoman rule. By the 1880's, Islam had taken root in one third of the continent.

All dates are given according to the western calendar but can be converted online

THE KORAN
The main source of teaching for Muslims is the Koran. It was written down over a long period of time by Prophet Mohammed, dictated to him by the Angel Gabriel. The word Koran means 'recitation'. It is made up of 114 chapters, laying down clearly rules on domestic and political, as well as spiritual matters. The style is both simple and yet poetic. It has, through the ages, served as an inspiration to Arabic literature.

SCHOLARSHIP
Muslims of Arabia and the near East brought to Europe as well as Africa an immense amount of scholarship. Muslim society was unique in developing branches of learning, astronomy and medicine for example, distinct from religious thinking and magic.

Modern mathematical knowledge owes much to al Kwarizmi, whose book The Calculation of Integration and Equation dealt with equations, algebra and measurement. He and other Muslim scholars gave us:

Numerals and counting in tens

Use of the decimal point

Algebra

Geography was another area where the Muslim world excelled. The most famous geographer, born in the 12th century, was al Idrisi, who visited Spain, North Africa and Anatolia. He drew up maps, which for their time, were extremely accurate. There are many other Muslim writers and travelers - Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, 9th century; Ibn Jubair, 12th century; and Ibn Battuta , in the 14th century.

LITERATURE
The written word and the book are central to Muslim society. Shaykh Bay Al-Kunti's library in Timbuktu was a legal reference point for a large part of Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1930's. In the 9th century the library in Cordoba, in Islamic Spain, contained 500,000 volumes, while the largest Christian library in Europe, in St. Gallen, Switzerland, contained at that time just 36 volumes.

MODERNISING
By the 19th century Muslim scholarship had fallen behind modern European scholarship. The Egyptian pan-Islamicist, al Afghani, believed that Islam had become weighed down by its past and wanted to revitalise it academically, without westernising it. He was hugely influential in West Africa and East Africa. The British at first were happy to let Koranic schools take the burden of education, but later helped build a small number of schools for Muslims, which had a non-religious component as well as religious strand to their syllabuses.

These include: the Gordon Memorial College in Khartoum (1902); the first school for Muslim girls in Kenya in 1938. In Nigeria, schools were built in Kano (1911), and Sokoto (1912), with a Teachers Training College built in Katsina, in 1923

FLEXIBILITY AND REFORM
The way Islam has been practised has varied tremendously at different times and in different places. In some parts of the continent Islamic rules became modified, tolerating and accommodating traditional customs and practices. In other places, Holy Wars have been launched by Muslims against other Muslim communities, perceived as practicing the faith imperfectly. The most noted example of this being the Holy War of Usman dan Fodio in the early 19th century in West Africa.

RULES
Islam is a very practical religion, offering guidance on all aspects of everyday life, even the correct way to urinate. It is not an obscure religion to follow, with less divisions and heresies than Christianity. There is no complicated hierarchy of priests. As in Christianity, there is much emphasis on charity and simplicity of life style. It is not an exclusive religion, but acknowledges some Judaic and Christian traditions - both Abraham and Jesus are cited as prophets in the Koran. Like Christianity it welcomes all converts.

RELIGIOUS PRACTICE
Islam is very clear about what it demands of its followers. This can be summed up in five essential requirements - The Five Pillars of Islam. They are:

Faith: the declaration of faith is called the Shahada, and is expressed in the following words: There is no god worthy of worship except God and Muhammad is His messenger.

Prayer: Muslims perform obligatory prayers, or Salat, five times a day.

The Zakat: every Muslim sets aside a percentage of his/her capital, for those in need.

The Fast: all Muslims fast once a year in the month of Ramadan, abstaining from food, drink and sexual relations.

Pilgrimage (Hajj): every Muslim must make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once a year.

Listen to an Islamic Mosque Call to Prayer, Cairo

PERSONAL RELATIONS
An important aspect of the Islamic faith was that it allowed a man to take more than one wife. Christianity did not. So conversion to Islam did not force a man to choose one of several wives, risking pride, anger and humiliation on all sides. If a man is traveling and can't take his wife, he is also allowed to take a temporary wife through a contract drawn up by the Imam.

IBN BATTUTA'S PRAISE FOR THE GOOD MUSLIMS OF MALI, 1352
HONESTY
"They do not interfere with the property of the white man who dies in their country even though it may consist of great wealth, but rather, they entrust it to the hand of someone dependable among the white men, until it is taken by the rightful claimant."

PIETY
"...they meticulously observe the times of prayer…When it is Friday, if a man does not come early to the Mosque he will not find a place to pray because of the numbers of the crowd."

CLEANLINESS
"... putting on of good white clothes on Friday. If a man among them has nothing except a tattered shirt he washes and cleans it and attends the Friday prayer in it

Islam arrived in North Africa (the Maghreb) just seven years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed in 639. The 4,000 strong Arab invading forces came from Mecca under the leadership of the military ruler Amr ibn al-Asi. The Arabs were not entirely foreign to North Africa - they were well known as traders. There were also some well-established Arab communities. Within three years of arriving, the Arabs moved South, in retreat from the Byzantine fleet, to found the city of Cairo.

ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY
At the time of invasion the Christian Coptic Church was being persecuted on doctrinal grounds by the Byzantine church in Constantinople. Many Christians welcomed the Muslim forces as possible allies against Byzantium. After an initial display of force, the Muslims treated the Church leaders with deference.

In the long term, those that refused to convert to Islam were penalised. They had to pay high taxes and were barred or evicted from positions in government. There was periodic persecution, notably at the end of the 10th century and at the beginning of the 11th century, but no executions. Pockets of Christians remained in Egypt; there was also resistance to Islam from the Berbers and from the Christian church in Nubia.

"Here (Dongola) is the throne of the King. It is a large city on the banks of the blessed Nile, and contains many churches and large houses and wide streets. The King's house is lofty with several domes built of red-brick and resembles the buildings in Iraq."
Traveler and writer, Abu Salih's description of 11th century, Dongola.

In the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia became the focus for Christianity following the decline of the Kingdom of Aksum in the 8th century.

CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
The history of the Maghreb from the 7th to the 16th century was dynamic and turbulent, with reforming movements and dynasties clashing and succeeding each other. This took place against a background of vigorous trade and urban growth.

The Umayyad dynasty was followed by successive dynasties, operating across the Maghreb. These included the Abbasid dynasty, the Fatimid dynasty (claiming direct descent from the Prophet's daughter, Fatima) and the Ayyubid dynasty of Saleh al Din ibn Ayub (known as Saladin by English speakers).

A number of ruling dynasties began life as reforming movements, which launched jihads (Holy Wars) and then often took on the mantle of government. The most powerful and far-reaching was the Almoravid movement (al-Murabitun) in the West. This movement started in what is today modern Mauritania in 1070, and moved South as well as North, conquering Southern Spain in 1086.
Almoravids were overtaken by the Almohads in the 13th century. They in turn collapsed into three states by the 15th century. By this time Islam's hold over the Mediterranean was giving way to the Christian kingdoms of Aragon, Castile and Portugal.

FROM MECCA TO BAGHDAD
A crucial change for North Africa came in 750. This was when the Islamic centre shifted from Mecca to Baghdad (modern Iraq). In the long term this meant that Muslim society in the Maghreb became more independent, strengthening its ties with the flourishing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as establishing new Indian Ocean routes from the Horn of Africa.

PLAGUE
Another critical event was the arrival of the Plague or Black Death in 1348 from Europe via Sicily. It reduced the population of the Maghreb between a third and a quarter. It seriously undermined the economy both in terms of trade and agricultural production.

"Civilisation decreased with the decrease of mankind. Cities and buildings were laid waste, roads and way signs were obliterated, settlements and mansions became empty, dynasties and tribes grew weak. The entire inhabited world changed…"
Excerpt from The Muqaddimah: an Introduction to History by Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun, who lost both his parents in the plague.

ETHIOPIAN CHURCH
The Ethiopian Church continued through the centuries to resist Islam. However, from the 12th century to the 16th century, Ethiopian rulers were under periodic attacks from Muslim neighbours, starting with the Sultan of Shoa and culminating in 1543 with a decisive victory over the Muslim King of Adal, achieved with the help of the Portuguese.

OTTOMAN RULE
Ottoman control over the Maghreb ran from the 16th century to the 19th century through rulers of varying independence. North African politics then became increasingly caught up in Anglo-French rivalry and burgeoning nationalism and religious revival, particularly in Sudan and Egypt.

A CHRISTIAN ACCOUNT OF THE MUSLIM INVASION OF EGYPT
MUSLIMS ENTER ALEXANDRIA
"...the Muslims captured the city of Alexandria, and destroyed its walls and burnt many churches with fire and they burnt the church of Saint Mark, which was built by the sea, where his body was laid…"
Address of Leader of Muslim Forces, Amr ibn al-Asi, to Benjamin, Patriarch of the Coptic Church in Alexandria.

The Patriarch's response:

"Resume the government of all your churches and of your people, and administer their affairs. And if you will pray for me, that I may go to the West and to Pentapolis, and take possession of them, as I have of Egypt, and return to you in safety and speedily, I will do for you all that you shall ask of me."

Then the holy Benjamin prayed for Amr, and pronounced an eloquent discourse, which made Amr and those present with him marvel, and which contained words of exhortation and much profit for those that hear him; and he revealed certain matters to Amr, and departed from his presence honoured and revered."
Taken from History of The Patriarchs of Alexandria, 642, The Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
WHY COME TO AFRICA?
"I think this (the Muslim invasion of North Africa in 639) is an historical and strategic matter. No one can be in Palestine and Syria without being concerned about Egypt…and vice versa.

Egypt is the threat or the potential threat to those who are in Palestine or in Syria and those in Palestine and Syria are also a potential threat to Egypt.

Those who wanted to control the whole area of the Levant or the eastern Mediterranean must control Egypt. It is a historical must. We know from the time of the Pharaohs

"They belong to a powerful, formidable, brave and numerous people; a true people like so many others the world has seen - like the Arabs, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans.

The men who belong to this family of peoples have inhabited the Maghreb since the beginning."
Ibn Khaldun, 8th century Tunisian historian.

The Berber people had a particularly interesting role to play in the Maghreb. They alternately resisted and accepted new beliefs and political regimes, and yet remained ethnically a coherent group. They are found as far south as northern Nigeria and as far north as Morocco. They range in colour from dark to fair.

Some Berbers resisted the rules and regulations of Islam; many more accepted it, while others took on the role of reformers. Some Berbers became Christians, but evolved their own austere and uncompromising Donatist doctrine. This put them in direct conflict with the Church in Alexandria, which regarded them as heretics.

Famous Berbers
Jugurtha
King of Numidia, defeated by Romans 111 BC.
The Kahina
Priestess in the 7th century. Fought the Arabs, while prophesying their eventual victory.
St. Augustine of Hippo
Saint and evangelist.
Ibn Battuta
14th century traveler, writer and historian.
Abd el Krim
1882 -1963 nationalist, chief of the Rifains Berber people of Morocco, fought Spanish.
Matoub Lounes
Musician and Berber activist killed 1998.

Listen to a Berber grinding song, recorded in Morocco

Many Berbers became the mainstay of the Arab armies, indispensable for their riding and fighting skills. Berbers were at the centre of the Almoravid movement, which began with the piety of one man, the scholar and holy man, Abdallah Ibn Yasin. The Berbers maintained their historical role of being independently minded and tenacious fighters right into the twentieth century. From their retreat in the High Atlas, they resisted the French and Spanish attempts at colonisation successfully, until 1933

In contrast to North Africa, East Africa was never subject to one wide, sweeping Muslim takeover. Islam came to the East African coast in many waves and at different times. There is no single date in the records, but it is thought that Islam had taken root by the 8th century. The first Muslims came from different directions:

Most obviously from the Arab peninsula, which at one point is separated by less than fifty miles of sea from the Horn of Africa.

Egypt, where Islam first came to North Africa.

Somalia further up the coast, where the port of Zeila became very important in the 10th century in response to the political centre of the Muslim world moving from Mecca to Baghdad.

And Persia. There is a tradition that the first Muslims came from Shiraz in Persia. They are know as the Shirazis.

"Then came Sultan Ali bin Selimani the Shirazi, that is, the Persian. He came with his ships, and brought his goods and his children. One child was called Fatima, the daughter of Sultan Ali: we do not know the names of the other children. They came with Musa bin Amrani the Beduin; they disembarked at Kilwa, that is to say, they went to the headman of the country, the Elder Mrimba, and asked for a place in which to settle at Kisiwani.

This they obtained. And they gave Mrimba presents of trade goods and beads. Sultan Ali married Mrimba's daughter. He lived on good terms with the people."
Excerpt from East African Coast, Select Documents, G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville.

Undoubtedly there was early contact and dialogue between peoples on the East African coast and the peoples of the East - Arabia, Persia, India and even China, going back long before the prophet Mohammed was preaching in the 600's.There is also some oral evidence of a pre-Islamic empire, called the Shungwaya empire, exercising power along the coast.

What is clear, is that once people arrived they intermarried with the people of the coast very early on, forming a new kind of coastal society, the Swahili, with their own architecture, style of dressing and music.

Listen to Tarab Music typical of East Africa

CONVERSION
Muslim outsiders did not arrive on the Coast with the main aim of converting people; they came as traders, with influence. Not everyone became Muslim. There was a constant movement of slaves and traders coming from inland to the coast. On the whole, they only converted to Islam if they attained some permanent position in coastal society, as a leading trader, or craftsman, or in the case of women, as a wife or concubine to a rich man. There are few accounts of how these people came to be converted to Islam.

As in North Africa, trade was a powerful strand in the conversion of people to Islam. East Africa offered gold, ivory and slaves, and later on very fine woven cotton. In return, traders from the East and Persian Gulf brought textiles, spices, porcelain and other finished goods.

In the 19th century, Tippu Tip followed in this trading tradition, making himself a hugely rich and influential man in the region. A ruthless and commercially clever man, he specialised in long and dangerous treks into the interior to buy and capture slaves to sell at the coast. He had the monopoly of trade across an enormous territory stretching back from the coast.

A FORGIVING ISLAMIC CONVERT
"A group of Persian sailors were shipwrecked off what is present day Mozambique. They were taken to the court of a local king who helped them resume their journey. Before they went they tricked the king into boarding their ship. They then kidnapped him and sold him into slavery in Oman.

Years later, after many adventures the king succeeds in reclaiming his throne. By this time he has converted to Islam. By chance the sailors who originally kidnapped him turn up at his court. They are amazed and terrified to find him back in power. But he forgives them, saying they were the instrument of his becoming a Muslim."
Summarised from a 10th century account by Persian sailor, Buzurg Ibn Shahriyar. Taken from East African Coast, edited by G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville.

By the 14th century Kilwa was the most powerful kingdom along the coast - situated on an island some 200 miles South of Dar Es Salaam. But the power of Kilwa met a serious challenge in the late 15th century when the Portuguese arrived. The latter added a third and violent strand to the African and Arab interests making up the economy and politics of the coast.

By the end of the 17th century the Portuguese began to lose their commercial hold over the trade routes, confining their activities to the southern part of the Coast. French and British commercial forces emerged but accepted the rule of local rulers. The Swahili fell under the control of the Sultans of Oman. Attempts at converting Coastal Muslims to Christianity, whether in the 16th century or in David Livingstone's day in the mid 19th century, were rarely successful.

"In that place there was a Moorish woman who had two small sons; I wanted to baptize them, thinking that they were not the sons of Moors. They went running from me to their mother, and told her that I wanted to baptize them; and she came crying to me asking me not to baptize them because she was a Moor and did not want to be a Christian, still less did she want her sons to be."
St Francis Xavier: A visit to Malindi and Socotra, in 1542

TRADE
Islam first came to West Africa as a slow and peaceful process, spread by Muslim traders and scholars. The early journeys across the Sahara were done in stages. Goods passed through chains of Muslim traders, purchased, finally, by local non-Muslims at the southern most end of the route.

In the 5th century transporting heavy loads long distance was made much easier by the introduction of the camel to the trade routes. There were many trading partners in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gold was the main commodity sought by the North. Until the first half of the 13th century the kingdom of Ghana was a key trading partner with the Muslim North.

WEST AFRICAN KINGDOMS: THE KINGDOM OF GHANA
The kings of Ghana in the 11th century were not Muslims, but Muslims played a crucial role in their government. The great Spanish scholar Al Bakri describes the king of Ghana in the 11th century, Basi, as being a man who:

"…led a praiseworthy life on account of his love of justice and friendship for the Muslims…The city of Ghana consists of two towns situated on a plain. One of these towns, inhabited by Muslims, is large and possesses twelve mosques, in one of which they assemble for the Friday prayer.

There are salaried imams and muezzins, as well as jurists and scholars."
Al Bakri, from the Book of Routes and Realms, Corpus of Early Arabic sources for West African History, Levtzion and Hopkins.

Another trade route forged by Muslim traders went from Zawila (in what today is Southern Libya) down to Bornu and Kanem. Al Bakri regarded Zawila as a very important commercial crossroads, and from its description it is clearly a lively and prosperous centre of Islamic faith:

"It is a town without walls and situated in the midst of the desert. It is the first point of the land of the Sudan. It has a cathedral mosque, a bath, and markets. Caravans meet there from all directions and from there the ways of those setting out radiate. There are palm groves and cultivated areas which are irrigated by means of camels…"
Al Bakri, from the Book of Routes and Realms, quoted in Corpus of Early Arabic sources for West African History, edited by Levtzion and Hopkins.

After Zawila, carrying on directly South, traders eventually reached the Kingdom of Kanem near Lake Chad, a flourishing commercial centres between the 9th and 14th centuries. Kanem converted to Islam in the 9th century. It was later superseded by the kingdom of Borno.

By the 14th century the most powerful kingdom in West Africa was Mali under the leadership of Sundiata. One of his successors, Mansa Musa, made a celebrated hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. His retinue was so huge and luxuriously dressed, and carrying such vast amounts of gold, that he became the talk of the Muslim world.

As well as being very prosperous, Mali became a great seat of learning renowned throughout the Muslim world.

"We used to keep the Sultan company during his progress, I and Abu Ishaq al-Tuwayjin, to the exclusion of his viziers and chief men, and converse to his enjoyment. At each halt he would regale us with rare foods and confectionery.

His equipment and furnishings were carried by 12,000 private slave women, wearing gowns of brocade and Yemeni silk."
An account of Emperor Mansa's hajj, given to Ibn Khaldun by Al-Mu'ammar, quoted from the Muqaddima by Levtzion and Hopkins in Corpus of Early Arabic sources for West African History.

ISLAMIC REFORM AND CONQUEST IN WEST AFRICA
By the 14th century the ruling elite of the Hausa city states were all Muslim. They comprised Gobir (most northern), Katsina, Kano, Zazzau (the most southern), Zamfara and Kebbi.

The majority of the people did not convert until the 18th century, when a series of jihads were launched by the Fulbe, tired of the corrupt ways of the ruling elite.

First the Muslim states of Futa Jallon (modern Guinea) and Futa Toro (southern Senegal) were established. Then the city states were conquered one by one. This was accomplished by the Sokoto jihad under the leadership of Usman dan Fodio - scholar, military strategist and religious leader. Sokoto became the seat of a new Caliphate.

Islam leaders spread the faith further into Yorubaland Nupe. Dan Fodio's sons Mohammed Bello and Abdullahi took over the practical running of this great Muslim territory.

Listen to the court musicians of the current Emir of Zazzau in Zaria, Northern Nigeria

FIGHTING THE FRENCH
The momentum of reform was continued by Umar Tal, a Tukulor scholar who conquered three Bambara kingdoms in the 1850's-1860's. The territory was taken by the French in the 1890's. Another formidable enemy of the French was Samori Toure who kindled some of the glory of old Mali with his Mandinka Empire and 30,000 strong army. He used the latest quick loading guns, which his blacksmiths knew how to mend. After his death, his son was defeated by the French in 1901.

ISLAM AND COLONIALISM IN WEST AFRICA
The British colonial administrators had some respect for Islam. They recognised its power to impose uniformity and spread a degree of literacy. When Queen Victoria sent two bibles to the Abeokuta mission, mindful of the spread of literacy through Koranic schools, she ensured one of them was in Arabic. Colonial officials who had served in Egypt, felt quite at home in the Muslim area of West Africa.

In northern Nigeria, the British undertook not to interfere with the Muslim order and exercised colonial authority through the Emirs. At the same time they discouraged people from going to North Africa to further their studies in the Islamic institutes of higher learning there, fearing the broadening of horizons this entailed would lead to a radical outlook. From 1922 onwards, Egypt enjoyed independence and stood as an inspiration to many people in Africa still under colonial rule

THE CAMEL
The camel was used for journeys across the Sahara in the 5th century. Its ability to walk on sand and store fat in its hump make it ideal for travelling through the desert. The camel became a very valuable animal. In Somalia, love songs were composed in praise of the camel.

CORAL
The art of building with coral blocks began in the 10th century in East Africa. Porites coral was used, which, for best results, had to be carved under water. As soon as it comes out of the water it becomes very hard and difficult to manipulate. This tradition of craftsmanship seems to have come from Red Sea communities, including those on the Dhalak Archipelago off what is now modern Eritrea

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